Wednesday, September 27, 2017

An Interview With Frances Brody

by Grace Topping

Novels about
strong women have wide appeal, especially women in historical novels who face
challenges modern-day women don’t always face—making them even more impressive.
One of those characters is Kate Shackleton, created by British writer, Frances
Brody. Kate, an amateur detective in early 20th century England,
stumbles on bodies and mysterious happenings in locations throughout Yorkshire
following WWI. The mysteries provide an intriguing puzzle, and the description
of the settings is better than a travel guide to Yorkshire.

I discovered the
Kate Shackleton series after meeting Frances Brody at a Malice Domestic
conference in 2015 and was impressed that she had traveled from England to
Bethesda, Maryland, for the conference. Her appearance on a panel at the 2017
conference entitled Murder Most English, where she talked about Kate Shackleton,
convinced me that this was a series I would enjoy, and in deed I have. The
fictional Kate is almost as delightful as her creator, Frances Brody.

Welcome, Frances, to Writers Who Kill.

Thank you so
much for inviting me, Grace. It’s lovely to be here.

Kate Shackleton seems to be a woman
before her time. Did making her a widow give her a freedom that young women
wouldn’t ordinarily have had immediately following WWI?

Frances Brody

As your question
suggests, Kate’s life would have been very different if her husband Gerald had
returned from the Great War. Many young women courageously seized a certain
kind of freedom for themselves, even though society viewed them as “surplus
women”. A real life contemporary of Kate’s, a single woman, joined the Metropolitan
Police and worked at Scotland Yard for forty-six years. Kate’s freedom to
follow her calling as a detective is made possible by her economic
independence. Virginia Woolf said “a room of one’s own” is a necessity for a
woman to be able to write. Kate, fortunately, has a house of her own, an income,
and a car. She can take off on a case at a moment’s notice. I was pleased to
provide this security for her, and it cost me nothing!

In Death
at the Seaside, Kate goes on holiday and abruptly finds herself spending a
night in the clink. Her experience illustrates how someone, even with her
status, can go from innocent bystander to suspect in a murder investigation. What
was the greatest challenge she faced working as a female amateur detective?

The greatest
challenge is yet to come …

You’ve set your books in various locations
in Yorkshire, for example, Death at the
Seaside in Whitby. How do you select the location for each book?

Before I begin,
I have a feeling about the kind of story this might be and what will go into
the making of it. There will be images in my head that give a clue as to the
place. Death at the Seaside involves
a nostalgic trip for Kate. She visits an old school friend who lives in a
seaside town, Whitby. This is where Kate met her husband Gerald. It just had to
be Whitby.

It might happen
the other way round. I learn something about a place and realize there is a
story to tell.

You also include some of the history of
those locations, for example the wreck of the Rohilla, a hospital ship that
sank off the east coast of England. How do the residents of those locations
react to your books featuring their cities or towns?

Residents are
enormously helpful and generous with their time when I am researching. I always
go back when the book is finished. Generally, people are pleased to have the
place they love featured in a novel. If there’s a contrary view, they are too
polite to tell me!

I’m glad that American and Canadian
readers have warmed to Kate Shackleton as much as I have. How was it breaking
into the North American market and trying to do promotion on two sides of the
Atlantic? Have your books been translated for readers elsewhere?

View of Whitby

I can’t take
credit for breaking into the North American market as it was thanks to my agent
that the books were introduced to an editor at Minotaur, a great publisher. Attending
US conventions and doing “road trips” with writer friends has been an amazing
experience. I have attended the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda,
Maryland several times, and Bouchercon New Orleans. It’s a huge pleasure to
make friends with American and Canadian readers and writers. Thanks to social
media (like this!) it’s possible to stay in touch.

Kate Shackleton
has been introduced to Russian readers. There will be German translations next
year.

Your list of honors, including being shortlisted
for the Mystery Writers of America Mary Higgins Clark Award and receiving the
HarperCollins Elizabeth Elgin Award, is impressive. Of the acknowledgements
you’ve received, which ones give you the most satisfaction?

Writing can be a
solitary business. I know I’m not the only one to say to herself, ‘Does this
manuscript have any merit whatsoever, and will anybody read it?!’ So it’s always
wonderful to have a good review, a nomination or an award. Yet some of the best
moments for me are when I receive an email from a reader who has enjoyed one of
my books. It may be someone who has been having a hard time and the book has
given pleasure.

You come from a long line of storytellers
but are the first in your family to actually write stories. What motivated you
to take your family talent to the next step? And why mysteries?

I had the urge
to write a novel and bought a typewriter at the age of 18. I wrote thirty pages
and came to a halt. I have no idea what that novel was about, or why I had to
go on writing. Perhaps I turned to mysteries because life is a great mystery.

In addition to your Kate Shackleton
mystery series, I understand that you’ve also written stories and plays for BBC
radio and scripts for television. How was it hearing or seeing your work performed?
If we look real hard, would we be able to find them somewhere online?

Writing stories
was a great pleasure and so much more manageable than writing a novel! Scriptwriting
taught me a lot about structure and dialogue. Actors and writers share a
similar approach to the work and it helps develop antennae.

I don’t believe
you’ll find any of the work online, perhaps for copyright reasons. The radio
plays have repeats from time to time.

I was pleased to hear that books you
wrote under your real name, Frances McNeil, are being made available again
under your pen name, Frances Brody. What’s it like having your earlier work
resurrected and under a pen name?

Those books
meant a lot to me, Sisters on Bread
Street, Sixpence in Her Shoe and Halfpenny
Dreams, and so I’m glad they’re available again. I’m used to being Frances
Brody now and so it does not feel strange.

Kings River Life Magazine
said, “Frances Brody… has a way of evoking Yorkshire in the 20th
century that reminds fans of Golden Age mysteries….” That was quite a
compliment to be compared to writers from that period. Do you have a particular
writer from that era that you admire or who inspires you?

The Golden Age
writers included such good storytellers, with so much depth and intelligence.
If I were to choose just one it would be Josephine Tey.

The number of public appearances you do sounds
exhausting. What do you enjoy about them most? How do you balance those
appearances with writing the next book?

I enjoy meeting
readers and writers, old friends and new. Oh, and it helps if the hotel has a swimming
pool! As for balancing the appearances with writing, I try not to spend too
long unpacking when I arrive home. I’m very slow at putting stuff away. I try
to start work as soon as possible when I come back – usually in the morning,
after I’ve fed the garden birds.

What’s next for Kate Shackleton?

Kate’s latest
adventure, Death in the Stars,
features a much-loved singer, variety theatres, and a total eclipse of the sun.
It will be published in the UK on October 5.

Heading
off for a long-overdue holiday to Whitby, she visits her school friend Alma who
works as a fortuneteller there. Kate had been looking forward to a relaxing
seaside sojourn, but upon arrival discovers that Alma's daughter Felicity has
disappeared, leaving her mother a note and the pawn ticket for their only
asset: a watch-guard.

What
makes this more intriguing is the jeweler who advanced Felicity the thirty
shillings is Jack Phillips, Alma's current gentleman friend.

Kate
can't help but become involved, and goes to the jeweler's shop to get some
answers. When she makes a horrifying discovery in the back room, it becomes
clear that her services are needed. Met by a wall of silence by town officials,
keen to maintain Whitby's idyllic façade, it's up to Kate - ably assisted by
Jim Sykes and Mrs. Sugden - to discover the truth behind Felicity's
disappearance.

That's such a big question, E.B. I do enjoy research, reading around the period, oral history, looking at old maps, exploring landscapes. History was part of my degree but what I do now is very different. Much comes from a feeling of what life was like for my characters, and from a sense of place. I blogged a while back about some of the settings in the Kate Shackleton books. Location is often a starting point. http://frances-brody.com/blog/yorkshire-kate-shackleton-territory/

It sounds like a wonderful series. I also like books between the wars like the Maisie Dodd series by Jacqueline Winspear. I'd like to know what is the first and second in your seriesbecause I always like to start at the beginning.

I adore books set between the wars - so much about that time period appeals, especially the possibilities opening to women and (yes, maybe I'm shallow) the clothes. I'll be looking for your books. The covers are delightful. Thank you for the interview, Grace and Frances.